Hou Hsiao-Hsien The Assassin

Turning His Back on the Audiences:
The Assassin, Another Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Uncompromising Art Masterpiece China is growing a tremendous number of movie consumers over the past decade, and while Hollywood is having its own debate about if it should make another reference about China in its next 3D feature, China and the local film industry has its own problems to fix. Hollywood’s invasion for the past decade has embarrassed many of the local films that was released at the same time as franchise films like Fast and Furious. Not to mention the independent movie industry, even internationally acclaimed film that won prizes in Film Festivals did not attract Chinese audiences to pay to see it in the cinema. There are two key aspects that distinguish

The film is Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s first attempt in the Martial-art genre. Hou proves that he would stubbornly apply his unique understanding of the martial art to the film like any other work of his. The film stands out from the rest of the martial-art movies in two ways: it takes a perspective of a female in a world that is presumably dominant by the male. Also, unlike other martial films, for example Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), the form of martial art in The Assassin broke the norm of eye-catching and quick action sequence. The Assassin transcend the martial art into the most simplistic form and by such naturalism it celebrates the ontology of this art. The audiences no longer feels detached from the supernaturality of the martial art and the characters who perform it. In the opening sequence, Ye Yinniang took the life of a corrupted local warlord on his ride. Like the swift of the wind, she steps on the horse and step down, and the man is dead. The sequence only utilizes one single camera angle and continuous cutting. The only trick in the editing was a slight slow-motion that aim to stagnate the time. The establishment shot before Yinniang’s action was the panning shot through the bamboo accompany by the natural ambience noise in the forest with the slight sound of the criquets and singing of the bird. The experience of watching a martial movie was changed from listening to artificial orchestra music to experiencing the observatory of the surrounding. The audience is hearing what Yinniang is hearing and seeing what Yinniang is seeing. The simplistic motions tributes the media of film as what it is originally designed for: imitate the hyperrealistic sensation experience for the